How do you feel about England now

[Stat Brother]

there's a distinct lack of passion about playing for England.

Not something you could ever accuse of Mr Beckham.

 

[Icy Gull]

Not something you could ever accuse of Mr Beckham.

If Beckham is the way forward, things are worse than I thought.

 

[Stat Brother]

If Beckham is the way forward, things are worse than I thought.

No he clearly isn't the way forward, but his effort, work rate, commitment and desire need to be learned from.

The boy knew how to practice, it would seem our Young Lions have all the same trapping as Mr Beckham with a lot less effort.

Then bear in mind how looked down upon DB was by his peers and right there you have a slippery slope.

 

[Icy Gull]

No he clearly isn't the way forward, but his effort, work rate, commitment and desire need to be learned from.

The boy knew how to practice, it would seem our Young Lions have all the same trapping as Mr Beckham with a lot less effort.

Then bear in mind how looked down upon DB was by his peers and right there you have a slippery slope.

Maybe he should be in the England set up as a coach or motivator but there is no way that he should be considered for the squad. Playing the old guard in big matches has been a error that we have repeated again and again over the years. Better to play youngsters and let them develop. France did it and were in the wilderness before they dominated World and European football. Spain followed a similar course I think?

The downside is whether we actually have the quality to try this approach.

 

[Pavilionaire]

We don't have the quality. Besides that, football is supposed to be about entertainment, and I'd get more enjoyment watching Beckham play for 25mins than Ashley Young or Oxo-Chamberlain running into more blind alleys and losing control more often than anyone thought possible.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Not something you could ever accuse of Mr Beckham.

True. I have a lot of time for Beckham these days.

 

[Ulloa]

Don't watch England matches anymore and lost total interest. Only follow the mighty Albion.

 

[Stat Brother]

True. I have a lot of time for Beckham these days.

I did a full 180 on Becks during the 90 minutes of England v Greece @ Old Trafford.

 

[Weststander]

If Beckham is the way forward, things are worse than I thought.

Hart, Gerrard, Rooney, Wilshire have England to their core every bit as much as Beckham.
It's not about the passion or commitment on the field.

It's a lack of tactical and technical ability across the squad. For example, the overrated Smalling and Lescott were hoofing the ball clear in the first half, even when England were in the supremacy. They were lucky that Rooney, Milner and one or two others were managing to gain possession out of it, and creat chances. In the second half, the defence were exposed as donkeys. Is 23 year old Cleverley really the new Scholes? No, he was useless. All against a team picked from a nation with a pop'n of 625,000 (equal to greater Sheffield) and a FIFA ranking of 28. Embarrassing.

The England squads of 1986, 1990 and 1996, each had a smattering of players with vision who great with the ball. There has been a decline since, despite English players training with world class foreigners at their clubs.

 

[Washie]

All those who say they aren't good enough, so I won't watch them crap, or that the players don't care are just plastics. This is your ****ing country, these boys are representing your country. The way you guys are banging on, I expect most of you will go back to being United fans if the Albion get relegated.

 

[Dan Gleeballs]

Agreed. And I've only just started to realise this in the last few years. The worst thing about England internationals is it brings out so many morons who have no clue about the game and spout utter nonsense. NSC is bad enough when the Albion loss a couple of games, and that comes from people who actually support their local team and go to games, with England it's a million times worse. It winds me up having to listen to idiots at work etc going on and on about what's wrong with England when they 'support' Man Utd and have never been to a game in their lives. They shouldn't be allowed an opinion.

One thing I don't really understand though, is all this "the players don't care, they don't try" stuff. I'm pretty sure they do care, Rooney's got a St George's cross tattooed on his arm, for a start. And they do look genuinely upset when they get beaten. I don't think it's a case of not caring, it's a case of not being quite good enough. And the other thing is that international football in general is far superior to how it used to be, teams like Montenegro are good sides now, their players play in the top leagues in Europe and they are always going to be tough, especially at home. Didn't Spain draw with Finland the other day? There are no easy games. Except San Marino.

But still the main problem with England is that the country is still stuck in the 1970's with the football setup. English players are not good enough technically and not comfortable enough on the ball. And until we change our way of doing things from the bottom up and our obsession with competitive football from a very young age, we are never going to improve. It's still the same, coaches putting the big lads in so they can win the league in the under 15's, sticking the big black guy up front because he's big and black, not playing the little intelligent kid because he's not big enough etc. I read yesterday that there are 3 English teams in the under 19 Champions League semi finals: Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa. How many of those players will end up as real Champions League winners? Very few, probably none. The whole setup is wrong. The Spanish and South Americans don't give a shit about under 19's football, all they care about is nurturing and creating talent ready for the first team, they don't care about saying "our under 12's have just won the junior Champions League", it means nothing. We wonder why we can't produce 'footballing' defenders, like Spain do. Yet we stick the big man at the back from when he is 8, teach him to head it and clear it and make him play on full size pitches in 11-a-side games. How many touches of the ball is he going to get a game? And he spends his whole career like that. Yet in Spain, Portugal, South America etc, by the time that lad has made it to to the fringes of the first team he will have played everywhere. At the back, on the wing, in the centre of midfield, up front, full back, everywhere. He wasn't pigeon holed into a fixed position until he was 19, so he's totally comfortable on the ball and has a far greater understanding of the game than any English centre back who's spent his entire football career stood in the same place heading and kicking away anything that comes near him.

Until the football powers-that-be in this country wake up and realise we are light years behind the rest of the big nations in our whole setup, we are never going to win an international tournament. And it's going to take decades to sort out.

Totally agree with this. Especially the 1st two paragraphs.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Bit in a paper today mentioning that in the WC qualifiers England have only managed to beat San Marino and Moldova so far. This doesn't sound too promising for Brasil.

 

[MICK PATCHAM]

theyre not English anymore

 

[Mowgli37]

Bit in a paper today mentioning that in the WC qualifiers England have only managed to beat San Marino and Moldova so far. This doesn't sound too promising for Brasil.

Agree with this, people are constantly slating the older England players and sometimes that critisism is justified but what on earth is Hodgson doing starting Cleverly over Lampard?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

theyre not English anymore

Who isn't?

 

[Weststander]

With boring Hodgson, call me mad, but my instinct is that England will crash out.

An ideal future fit for him would be at a shite club, with rodents served up in the training ground canteen and a dilapidated rust bucket of a stadium.

 

[Icy Gull]

With boring Hodgson, call me mad, but my instinct is that England will crash out.

An ideal future fit for him would be at a shite club, with rodents served up in the training ground canteen and a dilapidated rust bucket of a stadium.

I will be in Ibiza for the Iceland game, so excited

This is 2016 isn’t it?

 

[Weststander]

I will be in Ibiza for the Iceland game, so excited

This is 2016 isn’t it?

Enjoy.

There’s no way in the world that a nation with a population the size of Shoreham/Brighton will be able to get a result against Roy’s Lions.

Should be an England cakewalk.

 

[Icy Gull]

Enjoy.

There’s no way in the world that a nation with a population the size of Shoreham/Brighton will be able to get a result against Roy’s Lions.

Should be an England cakewalk.

This teenager Rashford to come on and tear them a new one?

Football’s coming home, I feel it in my bones

 

[crodonilson]

The fire still burns bright, nothing quite like the atmosphere at Wembley on the night of a big Euro/WC qualifier.